It is the ides of October, my mini-LP or maxi-EP (since it’s 10″ vinyl it is not an LP) is out at last, available direct from us here or on Amazon but if you are in a hurry to get the vinyl we have it in stock this week, whereas Amazon won’t have till October 29. Vinyl is coming all the way from a pressing plant in the Czech Republic — the only place we could find to do the 10″ format. I have learned a bit about 10″ vinyl now, like that it actually costs more to make than 12″ vinyl. Those of you in the USA can also get it today on iTunes.

Note: the UK vinyl release (November 4 on the Sonic Cathedral label) will be on orange vinyl.

These new songs were produced by Jason Quever (Papercuts) in San Francisco, with Britta Phillips, Anthony LaMarca, and Jason Quever, with Gillian Rivers on viola. We (Britta, Anthony Jason and I) will be playing some shows this fall, we just added a show in Paris — December 7 at Le Point Ephemere, down by the Canal St Martin. In addition to sitting in with us, Jason Quever will be playing a set of acoustic Papercuts songs.

November 12 San Francisco The Chapel

November 14 Los Angeles Largo

November 29 Brooklyn Bell House

December 4 Manchester Ruby Lounge

December 5-6 London St Pancras Old Church (warning this church only holds 100 people so buying tickets early is recommended)

December 7 Paris Le Point Ephemere

More info again on my new website with new photos and some old videos (and a brand new video coming in about a week) or to find out when and where I am playing you can follow me on FB, or sign up via Bandsintown.

Here are a couple of paragraphs from yesterday’s Pitchfork review but let me assure you I am not majorly bummed out like they say, and this Luz Gallardo photo of me sitting in the back yard proves it.

The songs play like a return trip while all the old familiar signposts blur along in the periphery. Galaxie 500 always felt like a swift push out from the dock on into the unknown. On Emancipated Hearts, Wareham’s journeys feel post-climactic, suspended between the big explosion and the denouement of story about a man who’s still majorly bummed out. It’s heavy, but he’s always had a knack for making sense of the existential, like he puts simply on “The Ticking is the Bomb”: “Fallen is the rain/ And the ticking is the bomb.” The song is just two chords above a drum kit played with what could be feathers, a revving guitar idling beneath, stuck between the inevitability of the future and the past.

Wareham’s aim is true due in large part to enlisting Jason Quever, aka Papercuts, as a producer, himself an acolyte of eclectic slow-core and dream pop in his music. With Quever behind the boards, the electric elysium of Wareham’s sound feels grounded, spotted with acoustic guitars and light string arrangements. “Love Is Colder Than Death” limps more than it swings, but it’s an earnest admission, layered with his wife Britta playing bass singing harmonies above him. Wareham’s voice has lowered in registers over the years, and here that plays into his role as the bemused seen-it-all. . . .

Which is of course why he’s has been so incredible with covers of the years, from Jonathan Richman to New Order to Beat Happening. This EP proper closes with an incredible version of ur-hippy psych-folk group the Incredible String Band’s “Air” and it’s a fresh breath after much dread, as Wareham hums a chorus, stoned like Lee Hazlewood sipping a daiquiri on a beach. There are two more bonus tracks, a great acoustic coda in “Living Too Close to the Ground” and a clunky digital remix of “Emancipated Hearts”. The former is worth seeking out for its straight-shootin’ simplicity against some of the more oblique themes of the EP, while the latter is not really worth seeking out at all. Even at six tracks, it’s stunning how much life (and death) Wareham spreads over these tracks, and makes these tiny whispers of songs feel like the biggest secret anyone’s ever told you. – Jeremy Larson, Pitchfork

One Response to “DEAN WAREHAM MINI-LP OUT TODAY 10/15/13”

Hi Dean,
Already ordered in two formats. Don’t pay attention of what Pitchfork says….
How about Barcelona for a presentation concert? I think the last time I saw you play was at Primavera Sound with the songs of Galaxie 500.
Anyway, have a good day.
Best,
Pablo